Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

Articles written by Philissa Cramer


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  • Rachel Goldberg-Polin at son Hersh's funeral: 'Finally, you're free'

    Philissa Cramer|Sep 6, 2024

    (JTA) - Hersh Goldberg-Polin's mother looked almost as the world has gotten to know her when she took the podium at her son's funeral in Jerusalem. Rachel Goldberg-Polin had her hair pulled back neatly and was wearing a crisp white shirt, the trademark piece of masking tape marking the number of days since her son and 250 others were taken hostage on Oct. 7 affixed to its breast. But the shirt was ripped, in keeping with the Jewish tradition of rending one's clothing upon learning of the death...

  • Israel attacks Hezbollah

    Philissa Cramer|Aug 30, 2024

    (JTA) — Israel bombed hundreds of sites inside Lebanon and Hezbollah fired hundreds of rockets into Israel early Sunday in a sharp flare of hostilities at Israel’s northern border. Hezbollah has said for weeks that it is planning a significant attack within Israel in response to Israel’s killing in Beirut last month of Fuad Shukr, a Hezbollah commander. Israeli military leaders said they had determined that an attack was imminent and struck against Hezbollah’s rocket launchers in a bid to prevent or blunt the damage. They said that a fleet o...

  • Netanyahu apologies for Oct. 7

    Philissa Cramer|Aug 16, 2024

    (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has apologized for the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas in which more than 1,200 Israelis were killed and more than 250 were taken hostage. “I am sorry, deeply, that something like this happened,” he told Time Magazine during an hourlong interview this week in Jerusalem. The interview, which Time published in full, was Netanyahu’s first major one with any news organization since Oct. 7. Eric Cortellessa, Time’s national political correspondent, interviewed the prime minister shortly after his visit to...

  • Kamala Harris selects Tim Walz, pro-Israel Minnesota governor, as her running mate

    Philissa Cramer|Aug 9, 2024

    (JTA) - Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor who burst into national view after calling Republicans "weird," will be Kamala Harris' running mate on the November Democratic ticket. Multiple outlets reported the choice early Aug.6, hours before Harris was set to appear with her pick at a Philadelphia rally. Harris' decision ends speculation that Josh Shapiro, the Jewish governor of Pennsylvania, could be in line for the role. Walz and Shapiro were reportedly the two final choices narrowed from a...

  • Turkey's Erdogan threatens to invade Israel, in escalation of harsh rhetoric over Gaza war

    Philissa Cramer|Aug 9, 2024

    (JTA) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan openly threatened to invade Israel in support of the Palestinians as fears of a war with Hezbollah escalate — a shocking comment from a member of NATO, the international alliance of Western nations. “We must be very strong so that Israel can’t do these ridiculous things to Palestine,” Erdogan said on Sunday during a party meeting that was televised, according to media reports. “Just like we entered Karabakh, just like we entered Libya, we might do similar to them.” He added, “There is no reason wh...

  • 'Wait for harsh punishment' billboard goes up in Tehran

    Philissa Cramer|Aug 9, 2024

    (JTA) - Hours after the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran, a building-sized poster went up in the city's Palestine Square that featured the national language of Iran's sworn enemy Israel. "Wait for harsh punishment," the billboard said in Hebrew, atop a massive portrait of Haniyeh, whose funeral took place Thursday. Haniyeh is shown in front of the Dome of the Rock, a Muslim holy place on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. The poster offered a powerful symbol of what unnamed Iranian...

  • Hamas picks Gaza's Yahya Sinwar to replace slain political leader Ismail Haniyeh

    Philissa Cramer|Aug 9, 2024

    (JTA) — Yahya Sinwar, the architect of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the highest-ranking leader of the terror group still alive, has been selected to helm Hamas’ political bureau going forward. The group announced the selection Wednesday, a week after the assassination in Tehran of its political leader, Ismail Haniyeh. Haniyeh is believed to have been killed by a bomb orchestrated by Israel, which had vowed to kill Hamas’ leaders wherever they could be found but has not claimed credit for Haniyeh’s death. The move means that Sinwar, w...

  • 102-year-old Holocaust survivor is Vogue Germany's latest cover model

    Philissa Cramer|Jun 28, 2024

    (JTA) - For its latest cover model, Vogue Germany selected a celebrity who regularly hobnobs with visiting dignitaries and walks the red carpet at film premieres: Margot Friedländer, 102, one of the oldest and most prominent Holocaust survivors in the world. In addition to documenting Friedländer impeccable attire and indefatigable spirit, the Vogue article includes her public condemnation of the rise of the political far right in Germany. About the rise of the far-right Alternative for G...

  • Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood rejects calls to cancel tour with Israeli musician Dudu Tassa

    Philissa Cramer|Jun 28, 2024

    (JTA) - The musician Jonny Greenwood is pushing back on critics who say he should abandon a plan to tour with an Israeli collaborator because of the Israel-Hamas war. Greenwood and Dudu Tassa, an Israeli rock star from a prominent Mizrahi musical family, are scheduled to perform together on the European festival circuit this summer, a year after they released a joint record that featured singers from across the Middle East. Some of the dates were rescheduled after the pair canceled shows in the...

  • German Holocaust reparations increase again this year

    Philissa Cramer|Jun 14, 2024

    (JTA) — The German government has agreed to allocate $1.5 billion in Holocaust reparations this year, setting a new record for how much the country is spending to support survivors. The increase from a total of $1.4 billion last year is due to a rise in the amount the government is paying to reimburse survivors’ medical expenses. But the sum paid directly to survivors has once again declined, reflecting the accelerating deaths of survivors. And the growth in the total package is expected to end soon as the number of living survivors plu...

  • Mexico elects first Jewish president

    Philissa Cramer|Jun 7, 2024

    (JTA) - Claudia Sheinbaum swept to victory in Mexico's presidential election Sunday, giving the country of more than 120 million a woman leader and a Jewish leader for the first time. Sheinbaum's election makes Mexico by far the biggest country to have a Jewish head of state. Only Israel (9.5 million) and Ukraine (38 million) currently have Jewish leaders. Sheinbaum's Jewish ties are centered mostly on her family story - her grandparents came to Mexico after fleeing persecution in Europe - and l...

  • Netanyahu says 'gaps' remain in proposal to end war announced by Biden

    Philissa Cramer|Jun 7, 2024

    (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that there are “gaps” between the ceasefire terms that President Joe Biden laid out on Friday and what he is prepared to accept. “The proposal that Biden presented is incomplete,” Netanyahu said during a closed-door government meeting in which he called reporting about his position on a potential deal “fake news,” according to Israeli media reports. Netanyahu’s comments, as well as growing tension within the government over a potential ceasefire, are muting hopes that Biden’s an...

  • California university president placed on leave

    Philissa Cramer|May 24, 2024

    (JTA) — On Tuesday night, the president of Sonoma State University sent an email to his school community announcing an academic boycott of Israel and other concessions to pro-Palestinian protesters on his campus. On Wednesday afternoon, he sent another surprising message: He was taking a leave of absence. “In my attempt to find agreement with one group of students, I marginalized other members of our student population and community,” Mike Lee wrote in the second email. “I realize the harm that this has caused, and I take full ownersh...

  • Israel places 5th at Eurovision

    Philissa Cramer|May 17, 2024

    (JTA) - Despite steep backlash including protests from other competitors, Israel's Eden Golan placed fifth in the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday night after delivering a rousing final performance of her song "Hurricane." The competition's winner is determined by a complex system in which juries for each participating country allocate half of all votes, while the public contributes the other half. Golan's success - which exceeded expectations set in betting markets before the competition -...

  • From Michigan to Boston, pro-Palestinian protesters assert themselves at college graduations

    Philissa Cramer|May 10, 2024

    (JTA) — Dozens of students unfurled Palestinian flags and banners at the main commencement ceremony of the University of Michigan. A single student staged a provocative demonstration during a ceremony at Northeastern University, raising hands stained with red paint as a symbol of violence in Gaza. And a Palestinian student speaker used her speech to lambaste Israel’s war against Hamas at the University of Toledo. Such were the disruptions during the first major weekend of graduation ceremonies to take place amid a sweeping pro-Palestinian pro...

  • Brandeis extends transfer deadline, appealing to Jewish students distressed by campus anti-Israel unrest

    Philissa Cramer|May 3, 2024

    (JTA) — Brandeis University, the historically Jewish school outside Boston, has extended its transfer application deadline in a bid to appeal to students who are unhappy with their own schools’ responses to campus anti-Israel protests. The university announced the decision on Monday, as encampment protests spread from Columbia University to campuses across the United States. The protests, which take aim at the schools’ ties to Israel, are spurred by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and have in some places included rhetoric that veers into antis...

  • World Central Kitchen's Jose Andres: 'Israel is better than the way this war is being waged'

    Philissa Cramer|Apr 19, 2024

    (JTA) - The celebrity chef behind the nonprofit whose aid workers were killed in an IDF strike on Tuesday is appealing to Israel, and the Jewish people, to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. In an op-ed published simultaneously Wednesday in Yedioth Ahronoth, an Israeli newspaper, and The New York Times, World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres laments the killings and names the seven workers who died. He also calls on Israel to open land routes to deliver aid to hungry Gazans and says his...

  • Purim celebrations tempered by trauma and thoughts of the hostages

    Philissa Cramer|Mar 29, 2024

    (JTA) — In Jerusalem, a service omitted the loud noise-making associated with the holiday in order to accommodate soldiers traumatized by months of war. In Tel Aviv, bakeries peddled a triangular treat renamed for a contemporary villain, the leader of Hamas. And in Jewish communities around the world, costumes and holiday gifts paid homage to the more than 130 Israeli captives who remain in Gaza. Those adjustments marked some of the many ways that Purim, a generally whimsical Jewish holiday that celebrates an ancient victory over a t...

  • Israel's star English-language spokesman is suspended

    Philissa Cramer|Mar 29, 2024

    (JTA) — Eylon Levy, the English-language spokesman for Israel widely praised for defending the beleaguered country in English-language media, has been suspended and is unlikely to return to his role, Israeli media is reporting. According to the Israeli media reports, Levy was suspended over his response on X, formerly Twitter, to Britain’s top diplomat, who had called for more aid to be allowed into Gaza, where Israel is waging war against Hamas. Levy’s response, which has since been deleted, rejected the idea that Israel was preventing aid f...

  • 2 Matisyahu concerts in the Southwest are canceled after pro-Palestinian activists protest

    Philissa Cramer|Feb 23, 2024

    (JTA) — Two concerts by Matisyahu, the American Jewish singer famous for his peace anthem “One Day,” have been canceled after pro-Palestinian protesters targeted venues where he was set to perform. Meow Wolf in Santa Fe, New Mexico, canceled one concert on Wednesday. The Rialto Theatre in Tucson, Arizona, canceled a second on Thursday, after first saying it would not do so. Both venues cited staffing shortages and safety concerns. Both had been targeted by protesters who said Matisyahu’s record of performing for Israeli soldiers and pro-Isr...

  • Emmanuel Macron hosts ceremony honoring 42 French victims of Oct. 7 attack on Israel

    Philissa Cramer|Feb 16, 2024

    (JTA) — French President Emmanuel Macron presided over a somber ceremony in Paris on Feb. 7 to honor the 42 French nationals murdered during the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel. France flew relatives of the victims on a special flight to the ceremony, held in pouring rain in the courtyard of Les Invalides, the national memorial where Napoleon is buried. Each victim was represented by a photograph, and three empty chairs were placed to represent the three French nationals who remain hostages in Gaza. The names of each victim appeared on a l...

  • Israel investigating Hamas claims that Ariel and Kfir Bibas were killed in Gaza

    Philissa Cramer|Dec 8, 2023

    (JTA) — Israel is investigating Hamas’ claim that its youngest hostages, brothers Kfir and Ariel Bibas, are dead, along with their mother Shiri. The Bibas family became an early face of the hostage crisis after Hamas released a video showing Shiri holding her sons while being taken captive. Kfir, who is 10 months old, has become a symbol of the campaign for the hostages’ release. His brother Ariel is 4. Although most of the child hostages have been freed under the agreement with Israel, the Bibas family was not among those who have been retur...

  • Israel at war: Death toll climbs, IDF regains control of border towns as Hamas attack enters day 3; 'complete siege' of Gaza planned

    Philissa Cramer, This story will be updated.|Oct 13, 2023

    (Oct. 9, 2023, JTA) — A massive military operation is underway to place Gaza under a “complete siege,” Israel’s defense minister said on Monday, 48 hours after a surprise attack by Hamas left 800 Israelis dead, thousands wounded and more than 100 captive in Gaza. “We are going to change the Middle East,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday, according to Israeli media. Meanwhile, a second front in the war has threatened to open up. On Monday, a number of gunmen entered Israel’s north from Lebanon, where the Hezbollah ter...

  • Death toll climbs, IDF regains control of border towns as Hamas attack enters day 3; 'complete siege' of Gaza planned

    Philissa Cramer|Oct 6, 2023

    This story will be updated. (Oct. 9, 2023, JTA) — A massive military operation is underway to place Gaza under a “complete siege,” Israel’s defense minister said on Monday, 48 hours after a surprise attack by Hamas left 800 Israelis dead, thousands wounded and more than 100 captive in Gaza. “We are going to change the Middle East,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday, according to Israeli media. Meanwhile, a second front in the war has threatened to open up. On Monday, a number of gunmen entered Israel’s north from Le...

  • 'Barbie' director Greta Gerwig wants the movie's viewers to 'feel like I did at Shabbat dinner'

    Philissa Cramer|Jul 28, 2023

    (JTA) - Barbie the doll has a deep Jewish history. Now, the creator of "Barbie" the movie hopes watching the film will also evoke a deep Jewish experience. Greta Gerwig, who conceived and directed the buzzy live-action film released this month, told The New York Times that she hopes watching the movie will be a quasi-spiritual activity for its viewers. The feeling she wants to achieve, she said, is the same one she felt as a child when she was a guest at the Shabbat dinners of close family...

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